A large number of smaller pleasure boats have a removable plug in a hole in a low part of the transom. Such a hole allows the user to drain water from the boat when the boat is removed from the water, or when the boat is moving fast enough that the hole is not exposed to water. The plug is intended to maintain a water-tight seal at other times.
A large number of such plugs provide a generally cylindrical rubber stopper having some type of threaded washer or nut on each end, and an axial bolt. When the plug is inserted into the transom hole, revolution of the bolt forces the stopper to assume a shape having less axial length and a greater diameter. The greater diameter causes the plug's stopper to form a water tight seal in the transom hole.
Using a plug having such a structure provides several problems. First, the transom hole is generally located at the bottom of the transom, immediately above the hull. Such a location allows more water to drain out than would a location higher above the hull. However, turning the bolt, usually by hand manipulation of a T-bar handle, can cause damage to the user's hands, due to friction with the hull. Also, a plug having such a T-bar handle cannot operate where the transom hole is located too low, since the T-bar will contact the surface of the hull, preventing rotation.
A second problem common to most such transom hole plugs is slippage between the stopper and plug nut as the plug bolt is turned by rotating the T-bar handle. When such slippage occurs, rotation of the T-bar rotates both the plug bolt and plug nut; as a result, the plug nut does not move on the threads of the plug bolt.
A third problem commonly encountered in using most transom hole plugs is that, because the transom hole is located so nearly the hull, the bars on the T-bar handle must usually be quite short, and frequently when using a replacement plug the bars must be shortened so that they to not contact the hull as the handle is rotated. As a result, it is difficult to get any leverage when turning the handle, and a tool must sometimes be used.
What is needed is a transom hole plug having means to allow the user to turn the bolt, thus shortening and fattening the stopper, without risk of scraping knuckles on the boat's hull. The stopper must be securely fastened to one element of the threaded fastener, so that when the other threaded element is turned no slippage occurs between the stopper and fastener. The plug must also be adaptable to a variety of boats, having transom holes located a variety of distances above the hull.